Gympie court: Grog 'no excuse' for anti-Muslim rape slur

Gympie court: Grog 'no excuse' for anti-Muslim rape slur

DEON William Brown admitted being drunk when he walked into Gympie's Jockey Club Hotel earlier this year.

But that did not excuse the distress he caused with his race-hate comments about Muslims and rape, a Gympie court ruled on Tuesday.

Nor did his association with True Blue Crew, which appears to be distinct from True Blue Australia, an organisation which promotes nationalist views on its Facebook page and a range of racial attitudes, not all of them anti-Muslim.

Its Facebook page yesterday showed self defence diagrams featuring a red haired woman resisting a dark skinned man, but elsewhere reprinted a Daily Mail article which sympathetically reported on the plight of a Muslim man whose wife has been jailed in China.

The True Blue Crew organisation, in contrast, is described by opponents as "an Australian far-right group," accused on Wickepedia of encouraging "right wing terrorism and vigilantism."

The Courier-Mail reported last year that the group claims to be "non-racist" and "pro-Australian", believing in the "preservation of the traditional morals, values and Aussie pride".

Its detractors call its members "neo-Nazis".

But Gympie magistrate Chris Callaghan said it was not alcohol or any True Blue group that carried responsibility for Brown's conduct.

"You have to be responsible for what you put in your mouth. You've also got to be responsible for what comes out of your mouth," Mr Callaghan said.

"We live in a multicultural society these days. This is 2019," he said.

Brown, 48, of Curra, pleaded guilty to a charge of behaving in a disorderly manner at the hotel on January 3.

According to uncontested police submissions to the court, Brown walked up to three young female patrons at the hotel bar and said: "Your generation needs people like me to protect you from Muslims who want to rape you."

Police said this "caused immediate offence" to the three patrons and a bar attendant who refused to serve him.

Police arrived and gave him a "move on" direction, which he initially obeyed. But he then returned, before being charged, the prosecutor said.

Brown told the court he had fought for Australia and loved his country.

"I hope you will find it in your heart to seee me as a reasonably good bloke," he said.

"I didn't have a drink there. I asked for a glass of water and the bar manager swore at me, (so) I gave it back to him.

"I walked out and waited for the police."

Brown said he had only returned to the general area of the hotel because he had lost his bank account card and had arranged to meet someone on a traffic island near the hotel to retrieve it.

He said he was a member of a True Blue group and had been at a meeting where members were "talking about what's going on in this country with Muslims."

"It was going through my head and I carried on about it," Brown told the court.

Brown said his heavy drinking had occurred after the meeting, not while he was there.

Mr Callaghan said Brown had to accept that other people lived here too and had a right to.

He said the comments, "suggesting a Muslim predilection towards rape," caused unjustifiable offence to Jockey Club Hotel patrons.

"You had no right to do that. That was disorderly behaviour," he said.

"Regardless of whether you seerved your country or not, you have no right to berate members of another race, because racial hatred is not the message we want to send out.

"I want you to reflect upon that, next time you go to your meetings.

"Your comments caused distress to the female patrons and you can see it caused upset to a member of the bar staff, who then refused to serve you," Mr Callaghan said.